Dangote cuts sugar import by 40%, targets production of 430,000 tonnes per year

Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, revealed that the company was embarking on Phase II of its $700 million sugar project at Tunga, Nasarawa state, a project which sits on a landmass of over 100,000 hectares making the sugar plant the largest in Africa.

Recall the Dangote sugar group and the Nasarawa state government had in 2017, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the construction of a $700 million sugar project in the state. 

The project boasts of a 68,000-hectare sugar plantation and two sugar factories. It also has the capacity to produce 430,000tpa of refined white sugar, representing about 30 percent of the country’s consumption.

According to the Trade Data Monitor, Brazil has been the largest exporter of sugar to Nigeria with its cumulative raw sugar exports to Nigeria reaching 1.62 million tonnes in 2020/21.

The Central Bank Of Nigeria, CBN in April 2021, updated its foreign exchange restriction list by including sugar and wheat. This move formed part of the measures to conserve foreign exchange and boost local production of these items.

The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, thereafter, banned the importation of refined sugar and its derivatives from the country’s Free Trade Zones (FTZs).

Dangote Group was one of the three companies granted exclusive approval by the CBN to import sugar into the country.

This policy, which is known as the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan according to the CBN, aimed to encourage local production and also, enable Nigeria to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production by growing the required local capacity to meet the demand for sugar.

Dangote Group’s efforts to cut down importation by 40%, will, therefore, complement the efforts of the CBN to achieve the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan.